Rousseau's "The Social Contract" proposes that legitimate political authority can only exist through a social contract where individuals give up some freedoms and form a community with shared sovereignty ("general will"). The sovereign power belongs collectively to the people, with government administering laws, and freedom exists through equality under self-given laws ratified by all. However, Rousseau notes that for a people to successfully institute principles of liberty, equality and fraternity through laws and institutions, they must already embody the social spirit these are meant to create.

1. Rousseau’s “Social Contract”
A.K.A. ‘How to Fix France...Maybe!’
1

2. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Born 1712, Died 1778
Most popular and influential of the
‘philosophes’ prior to and during
the French Revolution!
Published “The Social Contract” in
1762.
2

3. Rousseau’s ‘Problems’
Can there be legitimate political authority?
How is freedom possible in civil society?
3

4. A Few Assumptions...
Our Nature = total physical freedom, no
restraints on behaviour
T be human, we must be active in a ‘society’
o
Each member of society must enter into a
‘social contract’ with all of the others
4

5. What is a ‘social contract’?
the agreement through which each person
enters into civil society
The contract binds people into a community
that exists for mutual preservation.
We sacrifice physical freedom to gain civil
freedom (rational thought!)
5

6. In the political sphere...
Everyone will be ‘free’ because everyone will
forfeit the same amount of freedom and
receive the same amount of responsibility.
6

7. Administration: T Parts
wo
sovereign - the voice of the law and absolute
authority within the state. In Rousseau’s
words, the sovereign is “the people speaking
together” (GENERAL WILL)
government - charged with application of
the law toward particular matters
(PARTICULAR WILLS)
7

8. Quotes
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is
in chains.”
8

9. Quotes
“The Sovereign, having no force other
than the legislative power, acts only by
means of the laws; and the laws being
solely the authentic acts of the general
will, the Sovereign cannot act save when
the people is assembled.”
9

10. Quotes
“Every law the people have not ratified
in person is null and void -- is, in fact,
not a law.”
10

11. Quotes
“The legislative power belongs to the
people, and can belong to it alone.”
11

12. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
“For a young people to be able to relish sound
principles of political theory and follow the
fundamental rules of statecraft, the effect would
have to become the cause; the social spirit, which
should be created by these institutions, would have
to preside over their very foundation; and men would
have to be before law what they should become by
means of law.”
12

13. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
How can liberty, equality, fraternity be
written into law if man does not already
possess these values/attributes? If the
French people have NEVER experienced
these things before, how equipped are
they to institute them ?
13